Blog

A few years ago, Shakopee looked at many different learning management (LMS) platforms such as Canvas, Schoology, It’s Learning, and Moodle. Many of those in attendance loved the flexibility that Canvas offered over its competitors. While Canvas was not used by many school districts in Minnesota at the time, it was clear that they were expanding their reach across the country because they have a solid product that continues to improve.

Nearly three years later, Canvas has spread to Minnesota K12 school districts including Duluth, Wayzata, Proctor, Esko, De La Salle, and more. It’s cool to be the trendsetters, right?! And, amazingly, it is the second fastest growing LMS platform and fourth most popular LMS for Higher Education. Using this LMS will definitely help our students become college-ready!

When we signed our contract with Canvas, they made it very clear that they wanted us as a partner, not just a customer. They are receptive to suggestions and transparent about their development process. They sincerely want to get better at serving our teachers, students, and community.

Did you know that you can suggest new Canvas features? If you click on the “Help” button in the lower-left corner of any screen when signed into Canvas, you can access the Canvas Guides or make a feature request. (It helps to click the log in button so you can participate in the community using your shakopee.instructure.com credentials). All you need is 100 votes on your feature request and it could go into development!

You can also check out other people’s feature ideas and vote for them. For example, Eric Hills wrote a simple request on adding a shortcut to Modules on the Dashboard. Only a few more votes and this could quickly become a reality. No idea is too big or too small! You can follow and participate in discussion threads or feature suggestions, join user groups like the K12 Canvas Group, and read about upcoming features that are in development or recently completed. This is a great place to learn from others and see what’s coming up in the world of Canvas!